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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

This time of year, the school bells ring again for so many of us and our children. A house on a quilt is a symbol of our community and our lives together in society. It's no wonder that house quilts remind us of comfort and the togetherness of family, friends, and neighbors. They really appeal to us, maybe because "home is where the heart is."

The traditional schoolhouse of the frontier, complete with a bell tower, beckons us back to learning, as leaves swirl in the early autumn breeze. Quilt designer Ruth Powers offers this charming scene as a pattern, along with so many other beautiful designs.

Ruth writes, "Much of my work is inspired by nature; my daily walks fill my senses with color and design possibilities." In creating Little Houses, Ruth has done an excellent job of selecting different blues and greens for the sky and earth, while selecting the complementary colors of bright orange and orange-red for the homes. Ruth notes that this is a great pattern for using up fat quarters and scraps.

Here's a delightful neighborhood of cheerful houses done in russet and gold. Internationally-famous designer Alex Anderson has brightened the traditional fall quilt by adding contemporary colors of aqua blue and rose pink which make the maple leaves and houses sparkle against the dark background. Easily pieced using half square triangles, "Welcome Home" has become a classic best-seller from JWD Publishing. You can view all of Alex Anderson's books and patterns at Alex Anderson Quilts.

Schoolhouse Block, 19 x 22", from "There's No Place Like Home" by Sonya Chinn, at Sonya's Snippets

Long-arm quilter Sonya, creator of the Sonya's Snippets blog, sewed this charming applique scene as one of the blocks for a block-of-the-month quilt which she calls 'There's No Place Like Home'. This quilt was based on "Home Is Where the Heart Is", a block-of-the-month from The Stitch Connection.

Image credits: Images are shown with the generous permission of the artists. These quilts appeared in a series of articles on house quilts, including Our Town and Our Town Part 2.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Here are more than 50 free patterns for Halloween mini quilts, lap quilts, table runners and pillows ! We have a huge stash of free patterns in our Free Quilt Inspiration archive and we are excited about sharing them with you. This post was updated on August 10, 2017 !Scroll down the page until you see the quilt you like, then click on the colored letters of the link to the pattern.NOTE:Check out the great bargains on quilt books and fabrics atour eBay store!

Image credits: All images are copyrighted by their owners. Please respect their generosity in sharing their free patterns, and the restrictions they have placed on the use of these designs. Complete information can be found at the designers' websites provided in the links. If any links are broken, we'd love to know; email us at quiltinspiration {at} gmail {dot} com.